I have a question for outliners out there. when you outline do you know the end of your book. Such as the last page, or the climax of the novel? How do you figure out the end of your book. I'm figuring out how I write right now. I do a type of outline where I just keep typing none stop and talk myself through the story but i cant figure out the ending and I've also sat and pondered the story. Just wondering what you do to figure out your ending.
Do you know the end of your novel?
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I'm not an outliner but I know my ending. I wrote it after about the first thousand words or so, and there it sits, at the end, waiting for me to reach it.
One thing you could ask yourself is: What is the big conflict of the book? What are the smaller conflicts? How can I tie them all up? All the problems you've started in the beginning (and evolved to during the middle) need to have some kind of resolution. That's ususally your climax and ending cue.
For me, the end comes first. Then the beginning. Maybe I'm just crazy.
God, I hope not -- that's exactly how I work.
The writing of the book, for me, is as much an exploration and journey as the reading is for the readers. All I have is the end point to work toward.
Usually.
Yes, I figure out the ending in great detail before I start writing. I like to know what the story is moving toward every step of the way. Everything I write is slowly building toward the big moment where all the forces of the story come together.
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I know the ending of my WIP, and I knew it from the beginning. For the next novel, I have no idea!! even though I've nailed down a great beginning and middle So it's different all the time.
But the ending/climax is always the resolution of the BIG CONFLICT that drives your novel, when the MCs reach their goal and as a result go through psychological change.
So it's different all the time.But the ending/climax is always the resolution of the BIG CONFLICT that drives your novel, when the MCs reach their goal and as a result go through psychological change.
I've always considered it the point in which things slow down and stop happening. If there's still excitement to be had, the story's not over yet.
I know at the end of my book, that the hero will win and the villain will lose because I always want a happy, satisfying ending to a book.
Now, what that satisfying ending will be I don't really know until I've written at least half the book and know what promises I've been making the reader about said ending. Generally somewhere between half and 3/4 way through, the ending comes to me and that's what I write. Until that point, I don't even think about details 'cause it's not worth it.
And that's whether I outline or not, FWIW.
Now, what that satisfying ending will be I don't really know until I've written at least half the book and know what promises I've been making the reader about said ending. Generally somewhere between half and 3/4 way through, the ending comes to me and that's what I write. Until that point, I don't even think about details 'cause it's not worth it.
And that's whether I outline or not, FWIW.
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Not really...but I don't think it will be an HEA. I don't outline. Whenever I do it's as though the book is already written - the skeletal concept is there and I don't have the desire to put meat on its bones.
Off to plot my next chapter and figure out how to kill someone...
Off to plot my next chapter and figure out how to kill someone...
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I've written a number of things as they came to my mind. I didn't outline and was never sure of the ending.
However, I found something that an agent said about how PLOT COMES FIRST!
I had great characters but was unsure of where it was all going.
Finally I got the message and decided to figure out what the end of the story was - a young boy placing the amulet he wore into a stone in the world of ice to unseal the barriers between the worlds to restore magic and all creatures of all forms.
With that goal, my story has taken on an entirely different form and direction.
However, I found something that an agent said about how PLOT COMES FIRST!
I had great characters but was unsure of where it was all going.
Finally
I got the message and decided to figure out what the end of the story was - a young boy placing the amulet he wore into a stone in the world of ice to unseal the barriers between the worlds to restore magic and all creatures of all forms.With that goal, my story has taken on an entirely different form and direction.
As I'm not an outliner, I probably shouldn't be answering this. I always start with an idea and see where it leads me. About halfway through, when I've got to know the characters and what's going on in their lives, I begin to get a feeling for how the story will end. But it's not carved in stone until I get to that final chapter.
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I outline. I didn't know my ending when I started, but I *did* know my choice of endings. I just had to decide which ending would be the most satisfying for the reader and for myself, given I'm not one for happy endings and readers often are. I think I found a happy medium, but I only found it a few chapters before the end, when everything fell in place.
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I outline too. I'm a big fan of outlining as much as possible, because following an outline makes writing a lot easier.
I've created three or four different endings for my story and one of them seems better than the others at the moment, but my opinion might chance as I write the first draft.
I've created three or four different endings for my story and one of them seems better than the others at the moment, but my opinion might chance as I write the first draft.
I'm an outliner, though things will change and I'll adapt as necessary. I'm not a down-to-the-final-detail outliner, more of a this-needs-to-happen-and-this-in-that-order.
I tend to know the endings before I know the beginnings; working backward works for me.
I tend to know the endings before I know the beginnings; working backward works for me.
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Can you (any of you who work this way) give an example or two of endings that came first, and the beginnings that came later?
Dale
Thanks Dale for asking that. I was curious on how you did it. if its a process or just an idea that comes to you.
Have you read Before I Wake?
**** WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD****
IBefore I started the book, I had three scenes in mind -- little more than images, really -- that I knew were going to form the end of the book. Two of them are in the final book. The one that didn't make the cut was a monologue in Sherry's voice (which would have been awful). The scenes that pulled me into the book, and kept me going, were
a) the scene where Simon and Karen come to Sherry for their own healing and
b) the climactic scene, where Sherry heals Henry and the circle is completed.
**** OKAY, SPOILERS OVER***
All I knew at the beginning was that there needed to be an accident, and a child being grievously injured. And I knew I was working toward these three (now two) scenes. The rest... just happened.
I work knowing the ending first because that is how I find a "story" I look for the happy, or sad ending. Usually the main event in anything, but specifically a news item is the end result of a chain of things happening. Thus The moon landing is the end result of a "story" of many years and various people. In my own work, I try to at least envision what will happen at the end of the story to figure out what conflicts I will need to get to that ending. Starting with the "climax" of action is really the easiest way to write a story. You can see exactly which players you will need, where they need to be, what sort of a relationship they need and so on.
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I wish I could start with the end first. I usually have a great idea for the beginning and concept of the story, and then a really vague idea of what I want right before the end, but not the real resolution. I start with the beginning and kinda stumble my way through it as the characters discover things. And I usually struggle with endings.
I've done outlines before and since I'm a logical person, that's a good way for me to make sure I get the book fully written and not loose focus down the line, but it's not as much fun for me. I'm trying to loosen up and understand endings better so that I can develop a better sense of them.
But, yeah, I wish I knew for certain what the end was and then I could experiment with the story knowing where I'm going.
I've done outlines before and since I'm a logical person, that's a good way for me to make sure I get the book fully written and not loose focus down the line, but it's not as much fun for me. I'm trying to loosen up and understand endings better so that I can develop a better sense of them.
But, yeah, I wish I knew for certain what the end was and then I could experiment with the story knowing where I'm going.
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I don't. But that's only because I always get stuck in the middle and never come close to an ending. That's why I'm so curious about how people start with endings.
Dale
I’m not much of an outliner, but I never start novel until I know how it ends. Everything gets all worked out in my head before I start typing. Of course being a romance writer they all pretty much end with "and they lived happily ever after", so that helps.
Seriously though, I have one WIP that I pretty much started with the ending and I’m working my way back - the magic crystal was destroyed and my MC thinks that was her last chance at love, then she meets her dream lover in the flesh (so to speak). It was actually pretty easy to work backwards from there - I just started asking questions: How did she know he was "the one"? Was the crystal really magic? Where did it come from? How did she get it? Why did she have to depend on a magic crystal in the first place . . . .
I guess it was easy for me because the ending was so vivid. Now the trick is to make the rest of the novel live up to the ending.
Seriously though, I have one WIP that I pretty much started with the ending and I’m working my way back - the magic crystal was destroyed and my MC thinks that was her last chance at love, then she meets her dream lover in the flesh (so to speak). It was actually pretty easy to work backwards from there - I just started asking questions: How did she know he was "the one"? Was the crystal really magic? Where did it come from? How did she get it? Why did she have to depend on a magic crystal in the first place . . . .
I guess it was easy for me because the ending was so vivid. Now the trick is to make the rest of the novel live up to the ending.
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I write straight down the line, Chapter One followed by Chapter Two followed by Chapter Three. The ending is probably the most variable part of any story I write, changing constantly to fit the changes I make along the way. I almost never know the ending until I start getting closer, and even then it will probably be born and die in ten incarnations before I settle on it.
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